Imperfection
by Rai-Child
Summary: A wounded ego is never easy to heal… InoShikaCho, some InoSaku. Oneshot.


Imperfection

Oneshot

By: Rai-Child

Fandom: Naruto

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.

Summary: A wounded ego is never easy to heal… InoShikaCho, some InoSaku. Oneshot.

Author's Note: _Nothing much to say really… 0.o; Enjoy!_

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Slim fingers gripped the handle of the comb, running it through the blonde locks presented to her with swift accuracy. Of course, being good with such tasks generally came with the territory. Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino had been friends before they had been rivals, and the latter had taught the former everything she knew. Sakura could remember a time when _she _had let messy bangs fall into her face, a time when _Ino _had handed _her_ that ribbon and told her not to hide.

_A fire in a flowershop is hard to control. Once one stem goes up in flames many will follow, and thus the building had been transformed from calm and tranquil into a scorching inferno in a matter of minutes..._

Sakura carefully drew her friend's hair back into that elegant knot she could never do on herself, leaving a few choice strands free to fall about her face... It was all about precision, as if it were some sort of new, complicated Jutsu rather than getting ready for a celebration. It wasn't everyday a Kyuubi-containing _dobe _made it to Hokage. Sakura was undeniably proud of her former teammate, and therefore considered it to be of utmost importance that everyone attended his last night as a free man. 'Everyone' included Ino.

_The blonde had been asleep when it happened, head rested comfortably on her arms, when there was a sudden sense of overwhelming _heat, _and she had woken to a nightmarish scene. There was no time for any form of water-Jutsu. The room had been filled with thick, black smoke, sickly sweet from the dying flowers..._

The fight for the ice-prince himself had been lost by both competitors years ago. They had given up. In fact, so much time had passed that quite a large number of the Rookie Nine had even managed to make it to Jounin. The blonde sat in front of her, determinedly keeping her gaze _away _from her reflection in the mirror, was still a Chuunin. Ino was a skilled nin, narrowly missing out on Jounin status by one round, however, when it came down to it... She was riddled with insecurity. The accident had only made it worse.

"What'll they think?" She asked finally, voice cracking slightly on her words. A small crease of a frown flickered across Sakura's face for a moment before she suppressed it, offering the girl a small smile in the mirror. Ino kept her gaze fixed on Sakura, _still _not looking at her own appearance...

_She couldn't seem to find the exit. She was stuck in the main shop, now huddled behind the desk that she had been drowsing on, feeling herself start to slip from consciousness... It couldn't be helped. The smothering cloud had snaked its way into her lungs, refusing to budge no matter how much she coughed and hacked..._

_The scream for help was lost to the fray. Little did she know, outside her father was yelling too, struggling against those who restrained him to stop him from charging on in and putting himself in danger too..._

_"You don't understand- my daughter's in there!"_

"What, Shika and Chouji?" Ino nodded, biting her lower lip. She looked... Nervous. Something close to childlike apprehension kept her from sitting still; squirming slightly as Sakura sighed and turned her attention back to the ribbon she was securing into place. It pulled back the mess of hair that seemed to perminantly fall into Ino's eyes, always hiding half of her face from view as of late.

"They'll want to know what kept you so long..." Sakura said carefully, still valiantly holding her ground and pinning the last strand back, looking up to admire her handiwork. "Then there'll be beautiful reunions, pleasant words exchanged and _everyone _will ask what genius did your hair." Ino's eyes actually lowered slightly, drifting from the girl smiling weakly at her from over her shoulder to her _own _face...

_Whilst the firefighters had managed to restrain Ino's father from doing anything stupid, they hadn't counted on two more reckless family-and-friends entering at that very moment..._

_Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji._

_There was a brief flash of something large, red and screeching as Chouji barged right on in through the door, the smaller, slimmer nin one step behind him... If the fire service hadn't already been on the scene, the crowd that had gathered might just have mistook the larger nin for the engine itself. Shikamaru cursed under his breath as they were instantly met with the flare of light and heat, the thick smoke causing them to cover their faces with their arms, ducking into the flaming mess of a room..._

"And you call tell them a friend." Sakura finished, the smile genuine now, "After all, you sorted mine out for me, right?" Ino let herself grin a little, though the thought was bittersweet. Of course, she had been more than happy to give Sakura a helping hand getting ready. The girl was perfect- slight and graceful, flawless in almost every way... Everything Ino _wasn't_ now. As much as she had been so quick to pick out her faults, Sakura was the ideal practise partner when it came to what they called 'girl stuff'.

Of course, the next stage would be make up, though this was the part Ino had been dreading. Her eyes had moved to her own reflection, wincing, not liking what she saw in the slightest...

She was scarred. The angry red burn that she had picked up not so long ago was still horribly prominent, faded to a large, white scar that spread across half of her face and neck. It had barely missed her eye, trailing down to graze her jawline and then onto her collarbone... The accident had left her disfigured.

_"Shit..." Dark eyes flicked back across the room to Chouji, who stood waiting to one side as Shikamaru carefully lifted the inert form of Team Ten's Kunoichi onto his shoulder. The Akimichi looked concerned, and strangely it had little to do with the thick smog surrounding all three of them. Chouji knew Ino would be crushed. "Chou-"_

_"Yeah. Let's get the hell outta here..." He cut Shikamaru off, taking Ino gently from him before half-hauling him out of the door, gripping his upper arm tightly... Ino had obviously breathed in a lot of the rubbish the flames were giving off- he wasn't about to lose another friend to the smoke… Shikamaru sounded almost indignant._

_"Hey, I'm not the one who needs-"_

_"Just _move_, Shika!"_

Ino sat back and let Sakura carefully apply the thin layer of powder, sweeping the few strands of hair out of the way as she rubbed the soft cotton over her cheek with attentive precision. Ino closed her eyes, almost enjoying the attention. This had been a thing of the past- a time when the girls would come together for the evening and engage in good old 'female bonding'. This time, though Tenten and Hinata were absent, the memories came flooding back.

"I can't believe it's been almost two months..." Ino mused, turning slightly so Sakura could mask more of the mark. She gave a short, humourless laugh, as if only now realising the ridiculousness of the situation. "I've missed my boys..."

"I know you have." Sakura moved the cotton pad down across the other nin's jawline, before rubbing it in the powder again. "They'll be glad to see you, I'm sure."

"Having you image reconstructed _does _take time..." Another laugh, sharp and impulsive. "I mean, look at us-"

"You don't have to 'reconstruct' anything." Sakura told her, her voice taking on a certain stern edge she could have gained only from Tsunade. Ino opened her eyes, locking on her reflection. Her mouth opened and closed on wordless protests that simply refused to make themselves heard... It wasn't enough. You could still see-

"It'll just irritate it, Ino, the skin's sensitive..." Sakura told her, sensing the other girl's initial disappointment. "There's _nothing _wrong with you, the powder makes it a little less noticeable, but everyone knows about what happened anyway. No one's about to judge, so what are you afraid of?" Evidently, the shattered object labelled 'Ino's Ego' had taken a beating. Ino's voice was small for once, and she sunk back further into the chair.

"I don't really know anymore..."

_"She's okay, she's gonna be okay..."_

_"Kami-sama... What happened?"_

_"She's breathing, Yamanaka-san. She's going to pull through..."_

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It had been nothing short of stupid, going into a state of hiding for as long as she had. Maybe it had been the final act to push her over the edge; she had always seen herself as something to be constantly repaired _before_ the fire, never mind after it...

Konoha was fairly busy that warm, autumn evening, red and gold lamps lit at intervals down the streets as the two girls made their way along to Naruto's place. The event had been labelled 'Naruto's Last Night of Freedom', to which the Kyuubi-container himself had joked that he wasn't getting married, for the love of God... Of course, taking up the role of a Kage _was_ like marrying the village, so to speak. It came with a hell of a lot of responsibility attached, and if you made any mistakes there was the _nagging_... The elders and annoying wives weren't so different after all.

Outside, two figures were waiting, having yet to go inside the large, ground floor flat. Ino stopped short; startled by the hand that squeezed her's in a way that clearly said, _'Good Luck'_. Sakura carried on walking, giving the pair at the door a nod of acknowledgement before stepping inside, only to be greeted by an oddly stereophonic cry of _'Sakura-chan!' _from voices that sounded suspiciously like those of Naruto and Lee.

_Nothing should have changed... _Ino frowned as she took the first few steps in their general direction rather shakily, a nervous breath rattling in her chest. _Nothing. I'm still me, right?_

Shikamaru and Chouji stood silently as Ino approached and stopped about a metre away from them, as if expecting a reaction. Of course she did- it had been one hell of a while. Two months, _two months _it had taken to find some semblance of confidence to see her own _teammates_. Shikamaru was the first to give into the pressure, his gaze dropping to the floor. He slowly opened his mouth...

"I-Ino..." Chouji stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder, before turning back to the wavering girl in front of them...

"Hey, Princess." He smiled.

Words she hadn't heard for so long.

Everything melted to relief.

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_Review? X3_

_Ally_


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